Mexican

These are enchiladas for crispy edge lovers and impatient cooks. Because of their small size, they take about half the time to bake than your average tray of enchiladas, and the higher edge ratio means more crispies!

Mini skillet enchiladas are also great for customizing according to various tastes at a given meal- add more spice to one, omit cheese for vegans, make one with meat for meat lovers, etc. There are all kinds of ways to customize these little enchiladas.

If you only have one skillet and you’re cooking for two or fewer people, prep the beans, sauce, and avocado corn salsa in advance, then just use half your ingredients today and save the rest for assembling another round of skillet enchiladas tomorrow.

Preheat oven to 400ºF and grease 2 small (6.5-inch) skillets with oil or fat of choice (not virgin coconut oil).

Mash beans with spices and 1 tablespoon minced cilantro in a small/medium bowl and set aside.

Prepare the chipotle sauce: heat oil in a 1.5-quart saucepan over medium heat and sauté onion until soft, about 3 minutes. Add spices to onion and sauté 30 seconds before adding tomato sauce. Rinse can with broth and add to pot, along with chipotle pepper. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss ingredients for avocado corn salsa in a medium bowl and set aside for serving with enchiladas.

Brush exposed edges with a little bit of oil and place filled skillets in oven and bake until bubbly and beginning to brown, about 20-25 minutes. If your enhiladas look cooked through, but you want some more browning, turn the broiler on for 2 minutes, watching carefully so they don’t burn.

Remove from oven and let rest 5-10 minutes before serving with yogurt/kefir, cilantro, and hot sauce.

My CSA this week included five beautiful tomatillos. I’d never cooked them myself before and had only eaten them in the form of green enchiladas and salsa verde in various Mexican restaurants in California. But here I was in New York City with five locally grown tomatillos. I’ll admit, I wasn’t exactly excited when I saw that it would be included in the week’s CSA share, and my first thought was “OK, what am I gonna do with these.”

Well I was inspired by a recent Bon Appetit Instagram post and luckily had most of the ingredients I’d need already on hand. Tomatillos have a bright and slightly acidic flavor that brightens up this quacamole-ish dip. I didn’t even add any lime. Also, roasted garlic adds aroma and depth of flavor, sans the bite and bad breath of raw onion.

No need for special equipment, as I don’t have much myself, but if you have a food processor I suppose that could be a convenient way to incorporate the ingredients. I just used my knife and cutting board.

Serves 2-4

What you need:

2 avocados, cubed

5 tomatillos

3 cloves garlic (do not peel or crush)

3 red chili peppers (a.k.a. fresh cayenne peppers)

handful cilantro, finely chopped

salt, to taste

What to do:

Put whole tomatillos, garlic cloves and chilies on a pan and place in oven set to broil. Roast for about 15 minutes, turning once as it begins to blacken. (The tomatillos may pop a bit- that’s okay.)

Meanwhile, place avocado and cilantro in medium bowl.

When ready, remove roasted vegetables from oven and let cool slightly. Remove garlic from the peel and toss in bowl with avocado and cilantro. Squeeze chilies from their skins and remove most of the seeds, without obsessing too much. Chop as much as you can- a little smooshing action is okay. Add to bowl as well and, finally, chop up the tomatillos and begin mashing that with the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and serve with chips, on top of fish, salad or whatever else you feel like!

I finally made the move to NY to begin the Chef’s Training Program at The Natural Gourmet Institute and once again have INTERNET! Here is the last meal I made pre-move…a whole foods approach to Ameri-Mex fare. It is both winter and summer friendly…serve it warm in the winter (leftovers sauté nicely) or cold in the summer (great for picnics and barbecues). Add the jalapeño if you like some heat.

Wild rice is especially high in fiber and vitamins compared to other types of rice (it’s not really a rice, actually) and yes, it’s gluten free. I hear the Native American hand cultivated wild rice is the best in quality, nutrition and taste, but I have yet to try it. In the meantime, I use the common black variety.

About the corn…if it’s summer, get it fresh, slice the kernels right off the cob and throw it in the water with the asparagus. However, this time of year you’ll want to go ahead and get it frozen. Don’t worry about cooking it, it will thaw as the rice cooks and especially once it’s tossed with the warm rice.

Begin to cook soaked wild rice in the broth or water, covered, in a medium pot.

In the meantime, place olive oil, endive, corn (if using frozen), jalapeño, cumin and thyme in a medium bowl and toss together.

After the rice has cooked for 15 minutes, add the beet chunks. After 10 more minutes, begin to test the rice for doneness. Once the rice is just a few minutes from doneness, add the asparagus (and corn if using fresh) and let steam with the rice.

Test the rice, asparagus and beet chunks to ensure doneness. Pour into a strainer to allow everything to cool and to let any excess water drain off (about 10 minutes).